How to Grow Swiss Chard
Swiss Chard At a Glance
Difficulty
Easy
Category
Vegetable
Sun Exposure
Full Sun, Partial Sun
Frost Tolerance
Frost Hardy
Cold Hardiness
Survives to -12°C
Plant Family
Amaranthaceae
Growing Season
Cool & Warm Season
Plant Lifecycle
Biennial
How to Start It
★ Recommended for beginners
Chard handles light frost, so sow it about 2 weeks before your last spring frost. Each wrinkly seed is really a little cluster of seeds, so sow them 0.5 cm deep, about 20 cm apart, and cover. They sprout in 5 to 10 days, often several from one cluster: thin them to one plant per spot (the extras are tasty in salads).
Chard is one of the most generous crops you can grow: pick the outer leaves and the centre keeps making more from early summer until hard frost. It handles summer heat better than spinach, takes light frost too, and its bright stems look great in pots.
When To Start
First chance to plant
30 Days Before Last Frost
Last chance to plant
30 Days Before First Frost
When should you plant Swiss Chard?
Your planting dates depend on your local climate. Sign up and add your location to unlock personalized dates.
Your Swiss Chard Planting Window
Start planting
May 15, 2026
Last chance
Sep 10, 2026
Your Swiss Chard Calendar
Set your location to turn these into exact dates and reminders.
Sow chard outdoors and thin each seed cluster to one plant
2 weeks before your last frost· every year
Pick the outer chard leaves, the centre keeps growing
50 days after your last frost· every year· optional
Did you water your swiss chard seedlings today? Keep the top of the soil damp until they are up and growing.
About 1 days after you plant it
Time to thin the swiss chard seedlings: snip the extras at soil level so each one has room to grow.
About 20 days after you plant it
Your chard is growing! Thin seedlings so each plant has room to grow big.
About 27 days after you plant it
Harvest is close! Cut the outer chard leaves and let the middle keep growing.
About 43 days after you plant it
Picking time may be here: check your swiss chard.
About 50 days after you plant it
The Journey Ahead
Swiss Chard's Lifecycle
Seedling
Mature Plant
Seed Production
Step 1
Prepare Your Space
1.5 cm
Seeding Depth
20 cm
Plant Spacing
45 cm
Row Spacing
4
Plants / Sq Ft
Vertical Growing
Yes: Tower.
Method: Tower.
Succession Planting
Yes.
Good Companions
Bad Companions
Step 2
Planting & Sprouting
Expect sprouts in 5–10 days
Growing Tips
- 1Grow chard in full sun, or part shade where summers are hot, with at least 4 hours of sun a day.
- 2Mix plenty of compost into the soil before sowing, since leafy crops love rich soil.
- 3Water deeply once or twice a week so the leaves stay tender, and add mulch to hold the moisture in.
- 4Feed with worm castings or compost tea every 3 to 4 weeks, especially after a big harvest.
- 5Tiny flies lay eggs whose young tunnel inside the leaves and leave pale trails, so pick off marked leaves and cover young plants with row cover.
- 6Give each plant room so air moves between them and the leaves dry quickly after rain.
Seedling Phase
Step 3
Growth & Maturity
~50
Days to Maturity
45 cm
Mature Height
38 cm
Mature Width
Pests to Watch For
Diseases to Watch For
Mature Plant
Step 4
Harvesting
Harvest Window
60 days
When to Pick
Cut outer leaves continuously
How to Harvest
- 1Start picking when the outer leaves are about 15 to 20 cm long, about 50 days after sowing.
- 2Cut the outer leaves 2 to 3 cm above the soil with a sharp knife, and leave the small centre leaves to keep growing.
- 3Pick every week or so, since regular picking keeps new leaves coming until hard frost.
- 4Cook the stems like celery and the leaves like spinach, or use young leaves raw in salads.
- 5Keep leaves unwashed in a bag in the fridge for up to a week.
Step 5
Saving Seeds
How to Save Seeds
Chard makes seed only in its second year, after a winter, so cover the plants with a thick layer of mulch in fall, or dig them up, trim the leaves and keep the roots in a cold cellar to replant in spring. It crosses with beets and other chard, since they are the same kind of plant, and its pollen travels far on the wind, so let only one of them flower within about 800 m, and remember hybrid F1 seeds will not grow true. Let the tall flower stalks dry until most seed clusters are brown, then cut them and hang them in a dry spot to finish. Strip the clusters into a bag, remove the stems, and store them labelled in a cool, dark, dry place, where they keep about 4 years.
Seed Production
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